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Friday, February 26, 2010

Starbucks & Caramel Coloring

On a more tragic note...Did you know that there is GLUTEN in some of the flavored syrups Starbucks uses? It took me a very long time to figure out this piece of information. One day I had noticed my hair was thinning more then it should ( I mean every time I'd brush or run my hands through quite a bit would come out), I had also noticed that I was having episodes of horrible breakouts -welt like! Little by little, day by day my symptoms would worsen and I couldn't figure out why. I knew there was no gluten in my diet, for pete's sake I was cooking all of my meals and nothing that I had noticed in my diet had changed. And I never would think that my coffee was the culprit. One doctor and one Nutritionist later, I was told there was Caramel coloring and other types of HIDDEN GLUTEN in some of their flavored drinks.

Caramel coloring according to the FDA is considered gluten free, but that is only because the FDA has approved even gluten filled foods, gluten free if they are below 20ppm of gluten. Translation: The standard according to the FDA is that any product that tests 20ppm and below can be considered gluten free. The FDA has not yet been able to determine 100% gluten free. Some manufacturers can detect up to 5% gluten free, and that is also considered gluten free. This has become the standard. So some of you might not react to the caramel coloring and other hidden sources but some of you might depending on how sensitive you are to Gluten. So If you are ever wondering where "random symptoms" are coming from, you might want to re evaluate what you are eating, and do some investigating to see if anything you have been ingesting has HIDDEN GLUTEN.

You know I have to admit, I was totally bummed when I found this out. I used to live on those Starbucks flavored lattes. Every morning on the way to work, or at the train station, airport or while shopping on the weekend. I was the girl who always had a Starbucks in her hand. I even gave Starbucks a nickname! Starbys. About 1 full month after I stopped drinking the flavored coffee's my hair started to restore itself and grow in and the breakouts stopped. Bye, bye vanilla, gingerbread, eggnog and other flavored lattes, hello PLAIN.

PLAIN and I have had a relationship for about 1 1/2 years maybe even more, and I'd say it's been going pretty well. When you think about it, PLAIN won with flying colors. I could for the remaining of my existence continue to drink my favorite flavored lattes, loose my hair, break out and turn out to be one super ugly bald chick and never go on anymore dates or I could drink PLAIN. PLAIN won.

To find out more about Starbucks Nutrition, diet, allergy and Ingredient Information click HERE